Tuesday, 7 August 2007

The Newspaper House is an interactive public installation making use of the free newspapers found scattered in and around London. The house will be sited and erected in Gillett Square, Hackney’s new, urban public space, to provide wide access to the public in an area which does not have significant visual art provision.

Concept ::

The theme of the project is “the city is our home” and the project encourages people to think about how to keep our “house” clean, attractive and liveable. The topic is a current news item as London has problems with the large quantities of free newspapers that clutter and dirty our streets and public transport. Thinking about the way we live is not a trend for the privileged, it is essential that every member of the public starts looking after their own house, their environment, the world they are creating for their children.

This will open the “reduce-reuse-recycle” debate as well as make our voices heard about making the city – our city - clean and liveable.

Artistic Team ::Sumer Erek is the lead artist and has extensive experience of producing large-scale public art works. Karen Janody will be leading on the artistic project management and has produced visual arts projects extensively in Liverpool and London. Curator Gillian McIver, who is the founder of international art collective Luna-Nera, has been critical to the concept development.

Gillett Square ::The artists will be collaborating with the Gillett Squared team who hold the public entertainment license for the square. The director of Hackney Co-operative Developments Adam Hart will direct this activity as the named license holder. The production management will be led by Emma Jones, who specialises in delivering large-scale outdoor art installations and participatory projects. Hackney Cultural Partnerships Officer Sandra Collins is strongly backing the project now adding to the determination of making this happen in March 2008.

Participation :: The house can’t be built without local people gathering newspaper and white paper waste to make the blocks of the building, furniture and decorations. Sumer and the team in collaboration with paper manufacturing experts The Paper Trail will facilitate a series of workshops in primary and secondary schools as well as in key cultural venues such as the Geoffrye and Hackney Museums.

Further outreach will also be conducted with organisations such as Age Concern who Gillett Squared have involved previously in projects on the square, and via the extensive network of local organisations who are all regularly consulted about the use of the square for the benefit of local people and businesses. During the week of the installation there will also be further opportunities for people to make objects on site.

Demographic breakdown ::

We expect our predicted audience to attend for two hours on average: . 60% local inhabitants 40% visitors . A mixed audience, 2,000 individuals, giving the whole experience a community feel . Across socio-cultural backgrounds and ethnicities . Across generations . Culturally active and inactive . Museum goers, travelers, young people, families . Recycling conscious groups and individuals . Living and visiting London and highly likely to be shopping in Dalston, Hackney and East London.

· Press pack to local, regional, national, general & specialised press· Communication of the project via partner organisations’ newsletters· Website and presence on all important online social networks· A 4 page full colour A5 brochure distributed at the house, containing information on the events programme, raise awareness of partners & the environmental cause (no street distribution, to avoid un-necessary litter!)· Word of mouth with the help of communication partners· A Viral email campaign & competition of photographic or video evidence of the best recycling efforts. The best evidence will be shown on a screen in the house. · A competition to win a trip to The Paper Trail to the school and business that brought the most recyclable paper· Hackney Recycling, North London Recycling and Tower Hamlet Recycling to publicise to London schools and youth groups.· Local schools to include the Newspaper House in their curriculum· Amanda Birch of Building Design has committed to a feature in the February or March edition.

London only recycles 20% of its waste in comparison with the rest of the UK, which averages at 25%. Recycling has improved 50% since 2003, and 145% since 2000, which shows a real sense of awareness of the need to deal with waste and litter.

In 2005-06, paper made 25% of all household and commercial waste!

We expect this figure to have dramatically changed with the recent arrival of London’s free newspapers [London Paper & the Lite]. In the couple months, Westminster Council has made several attempts to tackle the waste chaos caused by these publications. To avoid a total ban, the newspapers were imposed to collect their prints within 100m of their distribution. Yet, the streets are still covered with newspapers. Travelers find themselves walking on newspaper on the bus, tube and on the trains. Newspapers fly in the wind, out of bins, and clutter the streets.

The Newspaper House proposes to tackle the extra waste with a fun, witty non-moralistic alternative to a growingly serious social issue.

We aim to tackle the extra waste via newspapers in an imaginative way while setting up the essential procedure to recycling this extra waste = turn it into a by-product.As this is a subject so close to people, TFL and councils alike, we are expecting it to be a press magnet in the art, architecture and construction press and packed!

· Help grow to a stylish, topical, fun and ethically good project. Contribute to developing the cultural fabric of Dalston, East London & London,. Help suggest ways to make quick and significant impacts on social behaviours as regards to waste & litter management and a more conscious of their living environment.

Company Endorsements ::

· Highly visible brand name or logo stylistically incorporated within the design of the external and internal walls of the installation (main cash sponsor)· Name mention at the Newspaper House speech· Name mention in the press & related articlesWe expect the project to be a press magnet, and trackable in the local, regional, national specialist and general media· Logo on promotional material (brochure, website, press releases, marketing pack)· Name and logo on newsletters sent via all partner organisations· Name and logo on the personal invitation send to all the movers and shakers of the public arts, participation and environment worlds.A brochure will contain information of events in & around the House, future plans, information on sponsors and partners, basic facts and easy ways to make a difference.

It is a huge challenge building a house and inviting the public to participate, however, it is exactly this type of work which makes London the very special place it is, rich in diverse cultures and ideas.